Little touch of heaven

009

I wouldn't say I liked it when people kept things from me. I've hated it all my life. I try to forget about it or brush it off but the question still lingers in my head: Do my friends like me?

I laughed at the photo Alex sent me, throwing my phone across my room. I could feel my stomach hurting from the fits of giggles that kept erupting from me.

"That reminds me! Did you ask your friend to hang out with you?"

I hold my breath behind pursed lips. I knew she was referring to Angel. I quickly changed the topic of the conversation, knowing that if she found out I hadn't spoken to him about the other night, she'd get angry. However, saw through me immediately. Then Alex was lecturing me about how I needed to hang out with him, I knew she was without listening to the words. Her face had a frown on her lips, and her brows were exaggeratedly furrowed. Made me wanna leave the call, but I knew she was right. I had to learn how to make new friends and stop being so scared to speak to people outside of my phone.

I stared at the call icon for what seemed like forever, my finger hovering over Angel's display name. It's like it was just begging me to press it. It's not that I didn't want to hang out with him, it's that I wanted to so much I was scared to mess it up. With trembling fingers, I clicked the button and quietly waited for him to pick up. A part of me was hoping that he wouldn't answer, that I could just wait and try again tomorrow, but it appeared luck was not on my side today.

Angel's well-groomed steel grey hair briefly came into view as my phone momentarily froze. "Ari! how are you?" I couldn't help but smile at the screen, feeling content that I was able to talk to him.

"Are you free in two days?" I asked him. He seemed a little taken aback by the question. A small smile appeared on his face as I observed him via my phone. Angel looked down at his phone, wondering where this was coming from. I could immediately feel the awkwardness of the situation starting to cause unnecessary anxiety in me. I soon felt bad for calling him; Alex was wrong, and I should have realized he wouldn't want to hang out with me outside of the cons.

"All right," hope beaming in my eyes. He hesitated for a brief moment, as though he was deciding what to say. With his hand raised to his face, he scratched the tip of his nose and said, "Yes.". He looked at me again after saying, "Yes, I am.". I felt my phone slumbering in my hand. Im sweating

"I'll invite some of my friends too, I've been wanting to introduce you to them for ages... Their names are Elle, Keaton, Kelly, Rafael..."

The conversation dragged in for hours after that. I only wanted to ask him a question but that turned into both of us sharing funny stories about our childhood.

He listened intently, as though I had spoken a miracle, or at least an elixir he had been longing to hear.  And in his words was a kindness, for him, it is natural. This attentiveness is a part of who he is and that is, if I'm honest, it's the best trait anybody could have. As the hours passed, the conversation turned into the best one I've ever had as well; it flowed.

Angels pov

"Big day tomorrow isn't it?" Rafael blurted. I took my attention off of my computer and glanced at him, unknowingly. I slumped in my chair, hands in my pockets waiting for Rafael to continue. He turned slowly, not even bothering to pretend to be on his phone. Not once has he spoken since we've been here, and when he did, it was random questions. He examines my face, and the direction of my hair, and clears his throat to continue.

"We are meeting Ariella! Man Angel, you have to stop acting confused" He accused

"Oh yeah," I stammered, immediately remembering the events of tomorrow. Today was the first time that day that I had thought about seeing Ariella again, but I was very excited to see her and introduce her to my close friends.

"Good, but how do you think Elle would react?.." Rafael murmured to himself, quickly trying to disguise his rhetorical question with a cough.

"What do you mean-"

A sudden notification from my phone made me turn all of my attention to the message. I smiled when I realised who it was from

Riri: What are your friends like?

She was probably having doubts, I did remember that one time she said that she was not used to having a big friend group.

"Is that her?" I could practically sense the excitement on Rafael's face, and I wasn't even looking in his direction.

Angel_x: Elle is very kind and I've known her since high school, I met Kelly through mutual friends and I met Rafael last year during my fashion course in college

Riri: They sound cool! Is Rafael as into fashion as you are?

Angel_x: Yep! He also lives in Veritas so you might have seen him on one of your shopping sprees that you ALWAYS seem to be on 😗

everything seemed to be going okay now

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The butterflies in my stomach have turned into skull moths crawling up my throat, and I can't help but throw them up.

"Is it true?" I asked, voice quivering

And she took hasty steps to leave the room as tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.

"I'm sorry."

She suddenly turned back to me before leaving, "You knew this would happen, we weren't made for each other, you know? It was destiny. The right person at the wrong time and all that."

Now I just let it come, drop by drop, and it feels like it's a sea falling on me instead of rain - like the betrayal of the years that I carefully picked up, condensed into a dense cloud directly above my head. The thing is, I just don't care. I'll still be true to myself and help those I care about, but I plan on just staying here, it's comfortable being numb.

She looked at me as if the life in her eyes had been doused with ice water. I'm not used to it, it demoralized me. I wanted her to reach out like she always did and say it was just a lie like she always did, but she wouldn't. She appears to have just crawled back into a solitary, imperceptible bubble. No matter how hard I tried, she was unreachable. She moved her eyes rather casually, as if they were heavy as if moving them was an effort. I'm standing right next to her, but she might as well be on the moon.

"I'm sorry, Angel"

A/N: WE FINALLY GOT 1K READS YAYY. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'll probably change the cover before the next update because i got 1k reads.. Who do you think Angel is talking to at the end of the chapter? What happened? DONT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT TYY

The meaning of this flower is: letting go.